About me
I'm now a self-employed planting and garden designer and practising gardener, having changed career from library and information management a few years ago. I trained in amenity horticulture then took the Diploma in Garden Design at Capel Manor Horticultural College. Loving my new career!
Gardening expertise
Professional
Biggest gardening accomplishments
My design for a contemporary garden in Highgate solved problems of drainage, poor soil, lack of privacy and some deep shade. The design features clean paving, a raised bed with bench and gentle waterfall, mainly evergreen planting and trees pruned to enable climbing by the children.
For an Enfield family I replanted the gardens: a fairly formal red and green approach in front and a more natural style in the back garden, with mauves, year round colour and grasses to touch as the children approach their play house.
I designed a productive garden for a keen new gardener in Winchmore Hill, so that she can gradually implement the layout as time permits. The design breaks up the L-shaped space into "rooms" and copes with extremes of shade and sunlight while ensuring the planting balances the 3-storey house.
I maintain a lovely garden in Southgate, gradually updating the planting.
Biggest gardening frustrations
Compared with office work, gardening is pretty free of frustrations. Niggles include: local nurseries not having more unusual plants; difficulties of eradicating horsetails; geums self-setting; ground elder; being madly busy in summer and fairly idle in winter.
The gardening project I am currently working on
Implementing my own garden has been delayed by working on other people's in the good weather. So during the winter I have started making a raised bed, digging a square pond and moving plants so the new hard landscaping can go down in spring.
Catherine Tite's forum posts
Re: Plant Name?
Tue. 28th June 2011 17:39
I'm a professional!
View my business listing here
Catherine Tite's gardens
